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We embrace the process of transformation in Christ, both in ourselves and in others, through the practice of Centering Prayer.

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Peace is a Divine Kiss

Series:

Love Matters

Week:

39

Love Matters are wisdom words from Fr. Thomas Keating spoken during the filming of the new series God is Love: The Heart of All Creation. Some are included in the series; others are from footage published here for the first time. A new word will be posted every Monday throughout the year. May they serve to inspire hope and lift your heart.

On the night of Christ’s Resurrection, he visits the disciples upstairs in the room. He first says, “Peace be to you.” And he shows them his wounds. Then he said it again, “Peace be to you.” Peace is like a divine kiss. It establishes a certain disposition of enjoyment or contentment or readiness for the relationship, whatever it is. And then he breathes on them. This is a very significant symbol because he clarifies it in case there’s any doubt: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” So, the kisses become even more passionate, you might say, in the spiritual sense and the giving of the Spirit is the interpenetration of spirits. It’s the consummation of the love moment of the marriage of the conjugal experience of union with God that is described as the “spiritual marriage,” which again is not enough. There’s always more in this relationship with God and so in some of the other world traditions and in the Jewish- Christian, there is this idea of non-duality - that the marriage moves to ever deeper levels of selfless love, of agapic love, and service of one another. So, what is a kiss except a desire to enter into the other or to merge with the other and so on, to be one with the other?